jaymcminn

Incredible what a real modeler can do with these old kits from polystyrene prehistory. Beautiful work and great photography to boot!

This is Tamiya's Porsche 934 RSR kit... the 1/12 scale kit from the mid-70's that helped cement Tamiya's reputation as a great kit manufacturer. This is a mid-90's release that I've had for a while. I didn't take enough pics during construction for a proper WIP thread, so I'm posting under glass with some of the construction pics included. The idea here was to envision this iconic car as a canyon-carving street car... not so far-fetched as shops like Canepa Designs have been converting these to street cars the last few years. The Jagermeister release contains treaded tires and a passenger seat to make that task doable. I started off with the body. I like to do a bunch of test-fitting and fettling right off the bat here so I don't run into any surprises down the road. I ditched the friction-fit door closure (basically a tab that comes off the soft vinyl interior door panel and pushes against the door jamb) and went with three neodymium magnets to help hold the doors closed. The doors needed attention to address some nasty gaps... I needed to do this on the Tamiya 1/12 240Z a few years back as well. Thin styrene square stock filled the gaps and I sanded the edges down to get an even door gap all the way around. Next I addressed a nasty fitment issue of the front bonnet. The bonnet bowed up toward the middle. Every body and bonnet I've seen from the 934/935s does this so I'm not sure where the problem lies. Issue shown below with a spare 935 bonnet... I clamped the bonnet down and trained a blow dryer on high heat over the back edge as well as the compund curve at the middle of the bonnet. This is the result... Next, I added the drip rail along the roofline using styrene stock. I also scored along the fender flare line to create a groove to flow flat black paint into to replicate the welting between the flare and body on the 1:1. It's a really noticeable detail that's missing from the Tamiya kit. Many 934's have the rear fascia removed below the bumper. I decided to do this to show off more of the turbo plumbing and exhaust. Photoetched saws are perfect for this kind of work. The body was then primed with Tamiya white primer and painted in Tamiya Camel Yellow, which is pretty close to Porsche's 70's Talbot yellow. I polished the yellow paint out without clearcoat. I didn't get any in-progress pics of the body paint process, which is kind of why I didn't do a full WIP on this build, so we'll just skip on... I used Scale Motorsports' Faux Fabrix paint for the interior. The only color it comes in these days is red. 934s came from the factory with carpeted interiors and a fuzzy dash to reduce glare. I masked off the semi-gloss black floorboards and sprayed the Faux Fabrix followed by flat black to represent the carpet on the dash and interior. I actually rather liked the seats in the red, especially against the black interior and yellow body. I used the kit harness parts as well as some 1/12 PE hardware for the driver's harness. The passenger... better find something to hold onto. The engine responds beautifully to some simple plumbing and weathering. I replaced the fuel injector lines with Top Studio turned metal fittings. Finishes are a combination of Tamiya acrylics, Model Master metalizers, airbrushed Molotow Chrome and Tamiya weathering master pastels. The fuel tank, like all the fiberglass pieces, was textured with mixes of Tamiya clear orange and smoke. Bolts are Scale Motorsports PE pieces. Fittings are Top Studio resin pieces. Luckily the terrible seam at the side disappears with the tank in place... Other underbonnet bits and bobs... I made the interior fire suppression pipes from 1/16 aluminum tubing. The ties were made from 1/32 Chartpak tape. I tried the Model Factory Hiro 3d printed zip ties and they were a pretty conclusive (and expensive) failure. Body and chassis getting closer... AAAAAAAAND......... Custom plate came from RC Plate Shop on a scratchbuilt mount. I'm torn over installing the front plate... I'm inclined to leave it off at this point. Fender rivets are Hobby Design turned metal 1mm conical rivets. License plate lights were scratchbuilt from sprue and sheet styrene. Hood pins are 3d-printed units I got from Spot Model. Overall this kit was incredibly fun, insanely challenging (the steering u-joint at the steering wheel broke as I was setting up the photo shoot; it's not something I'm not going to worry about at this point) and builds into a fantastic replica of one of the coolest cars of all time. As always, any questions and comments are welcome!

Mr. Surfacer is really good stuff. It's right up there with Tamiya.

I love this sort of detail. I like the Tichy Train Group styrene bolts myself... they're designed so you can either trim them flat or drill a mounting hole. Great work!

That stance. Oh yeah.

The dash looks really good, especially given your starting point. It'll look great in place. I wasn't sold on the wheels at first but painted with the logos they look the business. I really like the color combo seeing it all together on that dash, I think the pop of interior color against that blue is awesome!

When I was photographing my 1/12 Fiat Mefistofele for issue 212, I was looking over the RAW files trying to determine which ones to send to Tim and noticed that some of my best shots had paw prints and cat hair on the white paper sweep. Further inspection revealed tooth marks on the edge of the paper. By this I was able to determine that another cat must have broken into my house and gotten up on my clean white paper background while Bandit was was napping because he would NEVER do anything like that. Does Fuzz have an alibi for the afternoon of January 5?

So what is the group consensus on large-scale "subscription kits"? Everything shows up pre-painted and pre-decalled. Assembly can be challenging but the detail is usually pretty great right out of the box. Should they be allowed on the contest table with models that have been fully built, painted and detailed by the builder?

I like Tamiya Weathering Master Pastels for tires. I wish the manufacturers would go away from soft tires altogether, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

I've moved toward large-scale builds over the last several years because the format allows for more of the sort of detailing and weathering I like to do. Large-scale models do have more presence on the contest table, but it's a double-edged sword. A large-scale build can look clunky and toy-like if the builder doesn't put more effort into getting all the details right. I go to a show with the attitude that if I've had some good conversations, seen some great models and blown way too much money at the vendor tables it's been a good time. If someone deserves to beat me at the contest table then I want to pick his brain for ideas so I can make my next build better!

Exterior color A, interior color B. As long as you're making visors anyway, make them out of transparent green styrene. Very classic look.

Every time I think this build can't get more interesting or entertaining you somehow manage to raise the bar. I can't wait to see how that engine turning works out. Will the alloy hold its polished finish or are you going to clear coat the body to protect it?

Love it. Used those HRM wheels when I did my 275 Spyder a few years back as well. Great classic color choice!

Beautiful work. I'm pretty much at this point in my 934 build as well (massive photo dump in Under Glass when it's done!) and it's amazing how much detail you can put into that frunk. I put more work into this area than the engine bay because it's much more visible. Your real bolts on the fuel tank were a great idea!

Nice results. What is the consistency? How does it compare to something like Kristal Klear?

Bandit got a new toy...

I've been fighting a (mostly) successful battle with a Tamiya 1/12 scale Porsche 934 for about 3 months now and I'm in the home stretch. Perversely, I'm thinking about taking this kit on as my next challenge. Oy.

I'll have to try the Vallejo. My go-to was a Model Master acrylic wash that I've just used the last of. I like the Tamiya panel line wash a lot as well, but it's at its best highlighting really crisply-molded details.

I'm guessing your door fitment is probably better than most of the 1:1 that actually got built. Great clean build of an unusual subject.

Beautiful work. It's great to see the DS in those '50s colors!

Amazing work. If you hadn't listed the challenges you had building this I would have thought it just "fell together"!

LOL, me too. Tamiya got me on that one.

Definitely going to pick up that Supra. Always loved the 2nd generation.

By the time it makes it to production it'll be a compact SUV.

If you mean the recent Revell kit, it's a straight rebox of the AM kit from unsold stock with new decals for the #3 car in the Revs Institute. I've got it in the stash as well as the HRM A-arms and headers. Pierre, this thread is awesome and the work you're doing to correct this kit's shortcomings is fantastic!